Fevra
		Servals
		Lions
		Leopards
		Felines
		Canids
		Birds

My character on History of the Pridelands MUCK.

I was bruised and battered
I couldn't tell what I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself

— Bruce Springsteen, "Streets of Philadelphia"

History of the Pridelands MUCK opened in May 1999. The guiding plot included an evil pride, the Isilibi Ahari, led by the Lioness Zimwe'Malaika and her mate Luzzatto. The pride's main members were Zimwe'Malaika's kin: her sister Misuki, brother Sukutu, and Zimwe'Malaika's own offspring. Maisha was her newly adolescent daughter, being trained as the future leader of the pride. The juveniles of the queen's second litter—a female, Zira, and a male, Taka'Moto—were, unbeknownst to all but Zimwe'Malaika herself and her eldest daughter, only half-siblings to Maisha. Their father had been, not Luzzatto, but Ahadi, the current king of the Pridelands.

Maisha was trying to find her own confidence and role, although her destiny—assuming she did not botch it—was known, for as eldest daughter of Zimwe'Malaika she was princess of, and heir to, the Isilibi Ahari Pride. However, Maisha knew very well that if she did not live up to expectations, her younger half-siblings were waiting in the background...

Name: Maisha, which I pronounce as [ May-shah ], means "Life" in Swahili.

Maisha's Description:

Young, this Lioness, having only recently entered the adolescent stage of her life. Long limbed and awkward at first glance, ribs showing along her flanks. Yet despite the gauntness of her frame there is a glint in the deep amber of her eyes which marks her as being able to fend for herself.
     Those eyes are her most, perhaps only, striking feature, set in an area colored more lightly than the rest of her thin, dust brown coat, matching instead her paler throat and belly. A slightly darker tone lies along her back, breaking into a few looping rosettes, hardly visible, which are all the remain of her cub spots. That patterning follows a sharply sloping spine that ends in a long, whippy tail, tufted with longer hair little darker than the rest of her pelt.
     Battered she is indeed, young as she is, marred by a crusting of blood dried black in awkward loops over her back and sides, a chilling parody of her own, faint markings. That crusting serves to partially conceal the scrapes and gashes that mar her form, but not the slow, awkward movements that betoken serious bruising not yet healed.

Preview	Filesize	Description	Medium	Date
	[44 K]	My former character Maisha, an adolescent Lioness, drawn in realistic style.	Computer paint program	May 17, 1999
	[40 K]	Maisha (re)drawn in TLK-style.	Computer paint program	May 19, 1999
	[44 K]	Maisha as a cub, sitting, with a suprised and nervous expression.	Pencil crayon and black fineliner pen	May 20, 1999

Logs:

Flashback: A secret shared
Description: Zimwe'Malaika, pregnant with her second litter, shares the secret of their parentage with her daughter.
Location: ~*~Ibilisi Ahari~*~ Maisha's Overhang
Characters: Maisha, Zimwe'Malaika

What do you see...?
Description: Maisha's foray into the Pridelands with her mother. [Also, incidently, the first RP on the MUCK for most of us.]
Location: Sun-baked Plain, Waterhole
Characters: Maisha, Mufasa, Zimwe'Malaika, Ahadi, Auanza, Taka'Moto, Rafiki, Zazu.
Date: May 15, 1999

First Hunt
Description: Something of a rite of passage: Maisha's first try at hunting large prey, a Wildebeest.
Location: Pridelands, Waterhole
Characters: Maisha, Zimwe'Malaika, Misuki, Isilahi, Zazu, Mufasa, Wildebeest [Spoofed by Sukutu], Syma, Taka'Moto, Sukutu
Date: May 16, 1999

After the hunt
Description: Maisha and her kin return from the hunt.
Location: ~*~Ibilisi Ahari~*~ Pridal Caverns
Characters: Maisha, Zimwe'Malaika, Sukutu, Taka'Moto, Isilahi
Date: May 16, 1999

Battered
Description: Later, Maisha listens to her kin's discussion of how she acquitted herself on the hunt.
Location: ~*~Ibilisi Ahari~*~ Pridal Caverns
Characters: Maisha, Zimwe'Malaika, Luzzatto, Taka'Moto, Sukutu
Date: May 16, 1999

Meeting Kione
Description: Some posturing ensues between Maisha and Kione, newly accepted into the pride.
Location: ~*~Ibilisi Ahari~*~ Pridal Caverns
Characters: Maisha, Kione, Luzzatto
Date: May 18, 1999